Puncture
by Amber 31422
Summary: When the Fringe team finds two bodies with three puncture wounds on their soft palates, they jump to one conclusion: the shapeshifters are back. But this time, a new conspiracy reveals secrets that are better left untold. Takes place between "Immortality" (episode 313) and "6B" (episode 314).
1. Prologue

The wind whispered through the trees, and massive snowflakes danced their way down through the cedars, collecting on the thick branches and almost completely blocking out the sky. In the middle of the grove stood a tall man wearing jeans and a tee shirt. His dark eyes danced with fear, and he would nervously glance over his shoulder every few seconds, as if to ensure that nobody was following him. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind him, and the man took off like the wind, running faster and more urgently than he ever had before.

_It was coming._ He glanced behind him again, seeing nothing, but encouraging himself over and over again that the thing from the warehouse really was following him, stalking him through the snowy grove like a wolf stalking a rabbit, waiting patiently to make the kill. It never turned out well for the rabbit. And_ he was the rabbit_.

Another twig snapped, this time in front of him. The man froze, glancing around, sweating like mad. Then another twig snapped to his right, and he knew. _There were more than one._

A misshapen biped stepped out of the trees in front of him, holding a small, black box. Its features were lumpy and odd, almost alien, and its skin was translucent so that you could see each vein and muscle that lurked beneath it. From the man's right, stepped his girlfriend, Jenna.

"Alex, don't do this," begged Jenna. "Why are you running from me?"

"Running from _you_?" asked Alex. "I was running from _that_!" he gestures to the misshapen, vaguely human being. "You were chasing me too?"

"No, darling," said Jenna. "Why would I ever do that? I was running too."

"Why have you stopped then? Why aren't you still running?" Alex looked jumpy and paranoid.

"I realized something important," said Jenna vaguely. The creature stepped towards Jenna.

"Jenna! Jenna! Look out!" yelled Alex. The creature lunged for her, knocking her against a tree. "_JENNA!_"

Alex dashed towards his girlfriend and bent over her as she gasped for breath. The creature took several steps backwards, almost disappearing into the shadows. "Alex..." gasped Jenna.

"Jenna, why did you stop? You could have gotten away! What did you realize?" Alex looked down at the scratches that covered his girlfriend's arms, and realized with a jolt that she was bleeding silver. "Jenna...?" he began.

Jenna glanced at the scratches and smiled. "I realized that resistance is futile," she whispered.

Alex's eyes went wide as Jenna lurched forwards and broke his neck. The misshapen being walked forwards, and pulled a long silver cord with a three-pronged 'port' at the end from the rectangular, black box he held, and stuck the prongs into the roof of Alex's mouth. He then did the same with an identical cord on the other side, this time sticking the prongs into his own mouth.

The being began to morph, taking on Alex's exact appearance. The pseudo-Alex pulled the prongs out of its own mouth, and then out of the dead body's. The shapeshifter stood up straight and looked at Jenna, who smiled.

"Newton will be pleased," she muttered. "We're 24 hours ahead of schedule."


	2. Of Mushrooms and Cows

As always, Walter's lab was chaotic to say the least. Especially today, as Walter had decided that the best way to make Gene, the cow, glow in the dark was to feed her a bioluminescent mushroom.

"Walter!" argued Astrid. "You're going to kill her! Most mushrooms are poisonous..."

"Ah! But this mushroom is an _Armillaria Mellea, _more commonly called the Honey Mushroom. It's completely edible," replied Walter, brandishing the large golden mushroom he held in his right hand at Astrid as he spoke.

"It still won't make Gene glow in the dark. If people eat them all the time, and don't start glowing..." began Astrid

"Well, Astro, most of the time when people eat them, they haven't been enhanced to intensify the bioluminescent effect," admitted Walter.

"Moo!" said Gene loudly.

"Couldn't the _enhancement_ kill her then?" asked Astrid.

"No," said Walter. "I don't believe so. You see, I used a tiny amount of phosphorus to..."

"Walter, phosphorus is poisonous!" exclaimed Astrid.

"Moo!" repeated Gene.

"Only in over-large amounts or if exposed to over a long period of time. In fact, phosphorus is an essential component of DNA, RNA, and ATP, as well as in bone and tooth enamel. I used a small enough amount to just barely enhance the... glow...ey...ness," insisted Walter.

"Gloweyness?" asked Astrid. "Is that a scientific term?"

"Well... not exactly..." began Walter.

Just then Olivia and Peter strode into the lab. "Olivia! Peter! What a pleasant surprise!" exclaimed Walter.

"What's going on in here?" asked Peter.

"Walter is trying to make Gene glow in the dark by feeding her some kind of bioluminescent mushroom,"replied Astrid.

"Aren't those poisonous?" asked Olivia.

"Well, mostly, but not these," muttered Astrid, "or, at least not according to Walter."

"I can assure you they are perfectly safe!" interjected Walter. "More than perfectly safe, actually. Cows have four stomachs, and any poisonous elements would be leeched out, even if the mushroom were dangerous."

"All right then," said Peter.

"I still don't think it's going to work, but Walter insists that enhancing the mushroom with phosphorus will help," Astrid explained.

"Isn't that poisonous too?" asked Peter.

"_No!_" exclaimed Walter. "I know what I'm doing!"

"Anyway," said Olivia. "Broyles called me earlier, and it looks like we've got a case."

"Oh, really?" asked Walter, setting down the mushroom on a stack of Biochemistry textbooks, and looking extremely interested. "What happened?"

"A girl is found dead in a warehouse with three puncture wounds to her soft palate," replied Olivia.

Peter, Walter, and Astrid looked at each other. "Shapeshifters."


	3. Vanished

The warehouse where the dead body had been found was in Worcester. The team was surprised when they arrived and found nobody there.

"Who called in the tip, then?" asked Olivia. "Someone should have arrived and found the body, or we wouldn't be here. That, and the person who found the body should have stayed so that he could be questioned... unless the person who discovered the murder ran away."

"There's no harm in going in and taking a look around, though," said Peter, pushing the door open, and entering the abandoned and desolate building.

Upon entering the warehouse, Walter exclaimed, "I've seen a place like this before! That was where we found the shapeshifter embryo last year. It looked just like this place!"

Peter glanced around and replied, "You're right, Walter. This is the same warehouse."

"Well, that can't possibly be a coincidence," muttered Olivia. "There were shapeshifters here then, and there are shapeshifters here now."

"There might be a soft-spot between the two universes here," said Walter. "The Other Side might use that soft-spot to send the shapeshifters over here... where's the body?"

Peter and Olivia glanced around, and upon finding nothing, began a more thorough search. After 15 minutes of searching, they admitted defeat. "It's disappeared," replied Peter.

"Well, it can't have just _gone_," replied Olivia. "Bodies don't just get up and walk away."

"Any theories, Walter?" asked Peter.

"Yes... a few..." muttered Walter as he dug through some old boxes.

"Would you mind sharing?" asked Peter.

"Not quite yet," replied Walter, straightening up. "It's much too early."

The unmistakable sound of a car pulling up to the warehouse alerted the team, and they walked outside to greet Broyles and the rest of the back-up he had brought.

"Morning, Dunham, Peter, Dr. Bishop," said Broyles.

"Sir, the body is missing," said Olivia. "We got here, and there was nobody else here, so we went into the warehouse and looked around, but there's no body."

"You're kidding me," replied Broyles. "We have photos of the body that the person who found the girl sent us from his phone..."

"And now there's no body in there," said Peter.

"Do you have the photos?" asked Olivia. Broyles handed her a stack of three images that had been enlarged and printed in color.

The first picture was of the victim lying on the floor of the warehouse. The girl had shoulder-length, curly, dirty blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and was lying on her back on the ground with her mouth open. The next picture was of the inside of the girl's mouth, which, sure enough, had the three puncture wounds characteristic of a shapeshifter attack. The last picture was also of the girl lying on the ground, but there was something slightly different about it. Olivia compared it to the first image. The last photograph was blurrier, but there was something else.

"Sir, could you come look at this?" asked Olivia.

Broyles walked over to her. Olivia pointed to the first image. "Look at this," she said, and pointed to the girl's head. "Her eyes are open, but in this one..." Olivia pointed to the last photo.

"...they're closed," finished Broyles.

"Which means that this girl wasn't really dead when these photos were taken," concluded Olivia. "Do we have an ID on the 'victim?'"

"Her name's Jennifer Wilson," said Broyles. "27 years old, unmarried, works as an accountant. Seems pretty mundane to me."

"Then how did she get killed by a shapeshifter and walk away?"


	4. The Frozen Pines

Broyles shook his head. "If I knew that, you wouldn't be here." Walter turned to Olivia.

"Could I see the photograph of the inside of the girl's mouth?" he asked.

"Sure, Walter," said Olivia, pulling the over-sized image out of the stack and handing it to Walter, who immediately turned it upside-down.

"Walter, what are you looking for?" asked Peter, looking slightly confused.

"That," replied Walter, jabbing his finger at one of the puncture wounds in the girl's mouth.

"Okay," said Peter. "She got attacked by a Shapeshifter. That's _always_ what they do to their victims."

"Look closely," insisted Walter, shoving the photograph into Peter's hand. Peter stared at the wound for almost a whole minute when he saw what Walter was trying to show him.

"The punctures aren't bleeding," realized Peter. "If she was still alive when this photo was taken as the other two suggest..."

"Then there would have been some blood-loss, yes," finished Walter.

"Okay," said Olivia. "What does that mean?"

"I have a theory," replied Walter.

"Which is...?" began Peter. Walter turned and walked away without replying.

"Well, that's Walter for you," laughed Olivia.

"Agent Dunham!" called Walter from inside the warehouse. "I think I found something!" Peter, Olivia, and Broyles rushed over to where Walter was. "Look!" he said, pointing at the ground.

"Footprints..." muttered Peter.

"Two sets of them..." added Olivia.

"They appear to be going into the woods," said Walter, gesturing to the pine grove. "There might be another victim."

* * *

Broyles, Olivia, and several other FBI agents took point, leading the team into the woods. Peter and Walter followed, not far behind.

Olivia heard her feet crunch on the frozen pine needles as she and the rest of her team slowly walked through the grove. Snow had built up on some of the trees, and icicles hung from the branches, giving the trees the appearance of having white clothing and long fingers.

"The scale of this forest is unprecedented!" exclaimed Walter.

"Ssh!" hissed Peter. "Walter, shut up! This is supposed to be a stealth mission!" Walter looked severely disgruntled_._

Olivia glanced around, but saw nothing unusual. Behind her, Walter stepped on a pine cone, generating a loud crunching noise, and causing all of the agents to jump.

"Sorry!" yelled Walter.

"Walter, be quiet!" snapped Peter.

Olivia rolled her eyes and kept walking. After about 15 minutes of searching, she concluded that there was nothing to be found.

"Olivia!" called Peter. Olivia walked over to him and spotted the bloodstains that Peter had noticed.

"That's all very well, but where's the body?" asked Peter.

"Peter! Olivia! Over here!" shouted Walter.

"Walter! Keep it down!" called Peter, following Olivia to where Walter was jumping up and down to get their attention.

"Look up there, in the tree," said Walter, pointing to one of the lowest branches. An arm and a leg hung down from either side of it.

"I think we found our body," muttered Peter.

"It's quite ingenious really," said Walter. "The human brain is wired so that we look down and at eye level for danger, and never up. That's why hiding things in trees is so effective."

"How did _you_ find it?" asked Olivia.

"It's shoe fell on my head," replied Walter, holding up a black tennis shoe.

"Agent Broyles!" called Olivia. "We found a body!"


	5. The Other Body

Broyles walked over to Olivia and Peter and nodded. "We'll have forensics here within the hour. Any theories, Dr. Bishop?"

Walter wandered around the pines, looking into each of the trees as if searching for more bodies, and completely ignored Broyles' question.

"Yes, but it's 'much too early' to share them with us," replied Peter, sounding disgruntled. "They have something to do with the fact that there was no blood loss from the puncture wounds in the girl's mouth."

"It is no longer to early to explain my theory!" called Walter. He hurried over to where the three stood. "Because there was no blood loss from the puncture wounds, we can assume that they were already there before the Shapeshifter attacked her."

"So, what does that mean?" asked Olivia.

"That this girl, Jessica or whatever her name is, was already a Shapeshifter when she was attacked," replied Walter.

"So what you're trying to say is that she was attacked by a Shapeshifter before, and then attacked by another one while she was still a Shapeshifter?" asked Olivia.

"Yes," replied Walter, and he wandered off again. Broyles walked away to talk to the Forensics team.

"Hey! Walter! Come back!" called Peter, dashing off after his father. Walter turned around. "We thought the Shapeshifters were working together. Why would one attack another one?"

"That is an excellent question," replied Walter. "Perhaps the attacker didn't know that they were attacking another Shapeshifter. The girl appears to have been with the young man we found in the tree."

Broyles walked back over. "We have an ID on the second victim. Alexander Mannes, age 28, unmarried, worked at the same accounting firm as Jennifer Wilson."

"So they might have been on a date, and a Shapeshifter could have attacked them, not knowing that Jennifer was a Shapeshifter too," said Olivia. "Which would mean, that Alexander Mannes is a Shapeshifter now."

"I'll send his picture out to local PD, and warn them that he's a hell of a lot more dangerous than he looks," replied Broyles, taking his black Android phone out of his pocket and calling his contact at the Worcester Police.

"Wait," muttered Peter. "If Jennifer Wilson walked away from that attack, she's still out there somewhere, possibly here in the woods. We should get out of here before something happens to us."

Olivia nodded, then froze and whispered, "Where's Walter?"

Peter glanced around. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed.

* * *

Walter sang _"Van Amburgh's Menagerie"_ to himself as he wandered around the pine forest. "_He sticks his head in the lion's mouth, and keeps it there a while," _sang Walter. "_And when he pulls it out again, he greets you with a smile." _

Walter loved the forest. He had grown up in upstate New York, and as a boy he had run around the forests, collecting biological specimens for experiments in the basement with his chemistry kit. _"That Hyena in the next cage..."_ Walter abruptly stopped singing and froze. A twig had snapped behind him. Walter whipped around and cried...

"Peter! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Don't go wandering off like that," retorted Peter. "We think the Shapeshifter girl, Jennifer Wilson, might still be in the woods, so we're leaving now."

"Oh, come on, Peter!" groaned Walter. "There's nothing unsafe in these woods!... except perhaps Agent Broyles. He can be quite violent when he wants to be. Where's Agent Dunham?"

Peter turned around. Olivia wasn't there. "Olivia?" he called. "OLIVIA?" There was no response. **"OLIVIA?!**" Still no response. "I don't know where she could have gotten to..."

"**PETER!**" yelled Walter.

Peter whipped around just as a girl with dirty blonde hair and a man with dark brown hair came flying out of the trees right at him.


	6. Found

"Peter? … Peter? … Peter? …"

Peter awoke to Olivia bending over him, shaking him and saying his name. "Peter! You're awake! What happened?" Peter attempted to sit up, but a searing pain in his ribs made him gasp and slowly sink back down to the ground.

"Something… attacked us," he gasped. "I think it was the Shapeshifters. Where's Walter? Is he okay?"

Olivia nodded. "He's right over there," she replied, gesturing to Walter, who was leaning against a tree, looking somewhat worse for wear. He had a black eye, and his wrist was at a funny angle, as if it were broken.

"Do you have a mirror?" asked Peter. Olivia pulled out a compact, and Peter flipped it open, and registered his two black eyes and broken nose. Judging by the fact that it hurt like hell to breathe, he also had at least one broken rib. Peter groaned.

"The EMTs are on their way," replied Olivia. "Broyles found the two of you. You've been missing for half an hour." Peter nodded.

"Why would the Shapeshifters attack us?" asked Peter.

"I assume they thought they were defending themselves," called Walter. "They knew that people were in the woods looking for them, so they attacked. It was a simple matter of self-defense."

"All right," replied Peter. "That sounds reasonable, but why are they here? Who are they answering to? We found Newton dead in a puddle of mercury a couple of weeks ago, and as far as we know, Walternate hasn't appointed another Shapeshifter leader."

"That, I'm afraid, I can't answer without more information," replied Walter. Peter propped himself up with his left elbow. Every muscle in his left side screamed at him to lie back down, but he ignored the pain, and gritted his teeth.

"You should lie back down," said Olivia.

"Liv, I'm fine," insisted Peter. Olivia raised her eyebrows. "Okay, maybe I'm not _fine_, but I could be a hell of a lot worse."

"It's true!" called Walter. "We could have been killed!"

"Thanks, Walter!" replied Peter, sarcastically. "That makes me feel _so_ much better!"

Walter didn't seem to catch the sarcasm, and replied; "You're very welcome." Peter rolled his eyes. There were several moments of silence before footsteps behind them alerted them to the arrival of the EMTs.

* * *

After a ride in an ambulance and four hours of being treated at the hospital for his broken wrist, Walter was ready to fall asleep on the spot. He had never felt more exhausted in his entire life.

"Peter?" asked Walter. "Can we go home now?"

"I thought we were going back to the lab to examine the second body," replied Peter.

Walter scowled. "There's nothing to examine!" he insisted. "We've examined _dozens_ of people who've been attacked by Shapeshifters! Nothing will be different about this one! We can do it in the morning!"

"Don't you want to see how your experiment with Gene and that glowing mushroom is going?" asked Peter.

"No, I want to go to _sleep_," replied Walter, sounding irritated. "I've had a shoe fall on my head, found a body in a tree, been attacked by half-robot _fiends_ and been stuck in a hospital for _four whole hours_! Right now, I couldn't give a damn about anything except getting _home_ and going to _bed_."

"All right! All right!" exclaimed Peter. "We can go home." Walter sighed in relief, imagining how peaceful the rest of the day would be… until Peter's cell phone rang. "Bishop," said Peter, answering the phone. Walter sighed sadly as Peter continued; "Yeah, Liv, we're fine. Yeah… okay… meet you in the lab!" Peter hung up the phone and addressed Walter. "It looks like we're going to the lab after all.

"Excellent," growled Walter.

* * *

Olivia was attempting to figure out what the mushroom sitting atop the textbooks in the lab was for when Peter and Walter entered the lab.

"Hello, Agent Dunham," said Walter, sounding tired and grouchy.

Olivia walked up to Peter. "What's up with Walter?" she asked.

"He wanted to go home, but then you called and asked us to come here," replied Peter. "He actually made a speech about how tired he was, so we can assume that he'll be really ticked off for the rest of the day." Olivia nodded.

Walter walked over to the mushroom perched on his Biochemistry textbooks, grabbed it, and fed it to Gene without an explanation. "Uh… Walter?" asked Olivia. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to make the cow glow in the dark," he answered.

"Moo!" said Gene. Olivia noted that the cow's moo sounded almost apprehensive. Walter approached the body of Alexander Mannes, which lay on the slab in the middle of the laboratory, and glanced at it.

"As I said before, there is no difference between this body, and all of the others we've examined that were killed by Shapeshifters," said Walter briskly. "I am also currently unable to examine it," he continued, gesturing to the cast on his right hand, "So I think I'll go home and go to sleep. Who's with me?" Walter glanced around hopefully.

"Oh, come on, Walter!" groaned Peter. "You're gonna have to try harder than that. At least tell us if there are puncture wounds on the soft palate."

Walter raised his eyebrows. "I would… if I could put gloves on." Olivia was getting tired of this grouchy, sleep-deprived Walter.

"Fine," said Olivia. "I'll do it." She walked over to the box containing the rubber gloves, pulled on a pair, and pulled Mannes' jaw downwards, peering into his mouth. "He definitely has the puncture wounds."

"All right," said Walter. "If that's all you wanted me to do, I'll go home. AGENT FARNSWORTH!" he shouted.

Astrid poked her head out from behind a pillar. "Yes?"

"Could you set up a camera, and aim it at Gene? We need to monitor her and see if my experiment worked," said Walter.

"Sure," replied Astrid. "I'll use the webcam on my laptop." She dashed off to retrieve her computer from wherever she hid it to keep it away from Walter.

"_Now_ can I go home?" asked Walter.

"Fine," said Peter. "I'll take you home."

Walter grabbed his coat, and walked out of the door.

Peter took a couple of jogging steps to catch up with his father. "Hey! Walter! Wait up!"


	7. Mysteries in the Lab

It took several days for Walter to stop being angry with Olivia and Peter for stopping him from sleeping. He simply refused to even set foot in the lab for two days, and when Peter finally dragged him there, Walter refused to do anything, and seemed completely disinterested with the results of the 'glowing cow' experiment (which Astrid had dubbed "Project Cowlight," a portmanteau of 'cow' and 'nightlight').

Most of all, Walter was upset because he felt as if her were completely useless in the lab. He couldn't put rubber gloves on, hold a scalpel, or use a centrifuge. _What's the point of having me here_, he thought, _if I can't do anything? _Eventually, Peter talked Walter into trying to accomplish everyday lab tasks instead of standing in a corner and moping about how he would never be able to do anything right.

Astrid had brought up the video of the Project Cowlight experiment on her computer, and was showing it to Walter, who was leaning on his good hand and looking extremely bored. "Can't this go any faster, Asteroid?" he asked. Astrid sighed.

"I'm sorry, but the connection down here sucks," she replied. The video had been buffering for 15 minutes, and Astrid was almost ready to call it quits, and tell Walter that they'd have to try again some other time.

"This is _beyond _pointless!" exclaimed Walter. "Absolutely _nothing_ is happening!"

"Hey!" said Astrid, sounding surprised. "What's wrong?"

Walter ignored her question. "I can think of 1012 things I would rather be doing than watching this laptop load!"

"Walter!" said Astrid, loudly, but nothing she said seemed to register with the enraged scientist.

"…and _next_ you'll be asking me to _knit_ something! I can't think of _anything_ more useless than knitting! …except for watching this computer load!" shouted Walter.

"**WALTER!**" shouted Astrid. Walter turned to look at her. "The computer finished loading."

"Oh," replied Walter. "Well, that's wonderful news!" He sat down and examined the screen. About 85% of the video was just Gene standing there and eating, and another 10% was Gene poking her nose at the camera and trying to figure out what it was for. As soon as the sun set, Gene began to glow in the dark. "YES!" shouted Walter. "The experiment is a success!" Suddenly the camera stopped recording. Walter looked puzzled. "Why on earth would it do that?"

Astrid leaned over and punched some commands into the laptop, but nothing happened. "I guess it just stopped recording," she said. Walter nodded, looking as if he was deep in thought.

* * *

Peter and Olivia stood in the middle of the lab by Alexander Mannes' body. There was nothing to do, so the two of them just sat there, sneaking awkward glances at each other every once in a while. Ever since Olivia had gotten back from the other side, their relationship had been strained. Olivia simply couldn't forgive Peter for not realizing that she had been replaced by her double, and Peter couldn't understand why Olivia couldn't just let it go.

"Um… so… wonderful weather we're having," offered Peter. Olivia glanced outside. It was raining.

"Not really," she replied. "It's a little bit too wet for my liking." Peter nodded, looking Alexander Mannes in the eye, and wondering exactly what happened to him and why Olivia was being so awkward at the same time.

Walter and Astrid walked into the room. "My experiment with the mushroom was a success!" Announced Walter, breaking the awkward silence.

"That's wonderful Walter," replied Peter, distantly. He turned to face Walter, and Olivia shrieked behind him.

Peter whipped around and cried out in surprise.

Alexander Mannes' body was sitting up, and had grabbed Olivia by the wrist.


	8. IT'S ALIVE!

Peter grabbed one of Walter's textbooks and whacked the body's arm with it repeatedly until it released Olivia. Mannes' body moaned. "Walter! What's going on here?" asked Peter.

"I'm not quite sure…" replied Walter, thoughtfully. "Perhaps it's a Shapeshifter. We should ask it!"

"Okay," replied Peter. "Hey! Mannes!" The body ignored him. "Alexander Mannes?" No response. "Hey!" Still nothing. Peter reached out and tapped Mannes on the shoulder. Mannes whipped around and grabbed Peter's wrist, digging in its fingernails.

"Who… you?" Mannes asked.

"Who I am is irrelevant," replied Peter. "Are you a Shapeshifter?"

"What… Shape… Shifter?" asked Mannes.

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" replied Peter. "Walter, is he a zombie?"

"There are no such things as zombies," replied Walter. "He's certainly acting like one, though. I can't begin to explain what happened here."

"That's helpful," said Peter, sarcastically.

"Mr. Mannes, my name is Agent Olivia Dunham, I'm with the FBI," said Olivia.

"F… B… I?" asked Mannes.

"Yes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation," said Olivia.

"What… a … Bureau?" asked Mannes.

"It doesn't matter what the FBI is," said Olivia. "You were found, apparently dead in a tree. Do you know what happened?"

"What… tree?"

"He might have brain damage," said Walter. "I'll put that under the category of 'takes one to know one,'" he muttered bitterly.

"That's an interesting theory, Walter," said Peter, trying to cheer him up.

"Walter… Bishop?" asked Mannes. Everyone looked at him, surprised.

"Walter…? How does he know who you are?" asked Astrid.

"Frankly, my dear, I have no idea," replied Walter. "I've never seen him before."

"How do you know who Dr. Bishop is?" asked Olivia.

"Re… ani… mation," gasped Mannes. "Neuro… re… gen… er… a… tion."

"Walter…?" asked Peter.

"I must go look through my files," said Walter. "Perhaps I can find what he's talking about."

"What he's talking about isn't really relevant right now. What's relevant is what happened to him, why and how he was attacked, and how he came back from the dead," said Olivia.

"You might want to question him faster," pointed out Walter. "We may have limited time."

"All right then," said Olivia. "Mr. Mannes, _what happened to you_?"

"Can't… feel…" gasped Mannes.

"_WHAT HAPPENED?_" asked Olivia. "This is taking too long!"

"Mannes!" shouted Peter. "What happened?"

"Jenna… the thing…" he muttered. Then he gasped and collapsed on the slab, lifeless again.

"I'm still not completely clear on what just happened," said Olivia.

"My dear, neither am I!" said Walter. "What really puzzles me is how he knew who I am!"

Peter glanced at his forearm, which was bleeding from the punctures left by Mannes' fingernails. He started to feel dizzy, and collapsed in a heap in the middle of the lab.


End file.
